O'Neill ready for Copenhagen challenge
Credit: Extratime Team (ETPhotos)
Michael O’Neill was in a confident mood ahead of what must surely be the most important game of his managerial career in terms of prestige, pressure and potential cash rewards. He was calm due to the amount of preparation gone into this tie and he believes both himself and his squad know all they possibly could about their opponents ahead of their Tallaght showdown on Tuesday evening.
The biggest loss Shamrock Rovers will feel ahead of this tie is that of centre half Ken Oman. The ex-Bohemians defender was immense last week in Denmark and received Man of the Match from Extratime.ie, but his injury in that same game has cost Rovers. “We only really have two injury doubts. Ken’s (Oman) situation, coming off in the game last week, obviously is not good and he won’t be fit for tomorrow night. He’s probably facing a longer term layoff than we originally thought. He still needs a scan on the injury, but in terms of tomorrow night and the short term future, he won’t be available to us. We’ve been told it’s a minimum of four to six weeks. Stephen O’Donnell is the other one, he has a hamstring problem and we said we’d wait until after today to see if he would be available or not.”
Dan Murray looks to be the obvious replacement for Oman, and O’Neill highlights the importance of having the depth needed to compete. “He’s played in this competition before so obviously his European experience is invaluable. He’s captained the side before, obviously he’s been out of the side in recent weeks, because of the form of Craig and Ken, but this is an opportunity to establish himself back into the starting XI. I couldn’t have hoped for a better replacement.”
In terms of team selection, Rovers boss O’Neill admits he has to consider who to play. “There are one or two areas of the pitch where we will have to consider who to play. Chris Turner becomes available once again and he’ll come into consideration as will Gary McCabe. There won’t be wholesale changes, but we will look at one or two positions and take into consideration who will start and who will affect the game from the bench.”
O’Neill is aware of who holds the advantage in the tie however, and does credit FC Kobenhavn. “They haven’t conceded at home, which I’m sure they’re delighted with. They hold the advantage in the tie, they’re fully aware of, if they manage to score, how strong of a position that is. We obviously have to play in the same kind of mindset we played in last week. We might have to wait longer into the game before we believe we can take the upper hand. It won’t be an approach where we look to score straight from the off. We have to approach it in a sensible fashion, not a reckless one. Conceding a goal puts us in a very tough position, so we have to keep the tie as tight as possible. We’re well capable of scoring, but hopefully we can more bodies in the box than we were able to out in Copenhagen.”
“They know us a lot better now than they did before the game last week, and perhaps they think they can reach another level in terms of performance. They’re earlier in their season than we are. It’s not so much that the overall performance needs to be improved; we just need to improve in one or two positions. We were annoyed to concede from a set piece. If you look at the goals they’ve scored recently in their league, they’ve come from set pieces, so we’re aware that they hold a threat. They’re a physically strong, big side and we’ll have to counteract that. If our level of performance is the same as it was last week, and we can improve our final ball a small bit, we’ll get opportunities, it’s up to us to take them.”
In a psychological sense, Michael O’Neill believes he doesn’t have to do much convincing to show the lads how good they are. They watched the first half of the game together already, and they’re watching the second half as we speak. Particularly in the second half, they know how much of a grip they had on the game; it wasn’t a “backs to the wall” kind of performance. This squad of players love being stretched and they know how big of a challenge they have to face on Tuesday night.”
“I enjoy the European nights. I enjoy the preparations, and sometimes it’s better dealing with the players because they’re more focused. I enjoy finding out about other teams, I love the tactical side of it. When you’re playing in midweek, sometimes you play a game, have one session the night before the next game, and just play it. With the break, the time off has given us the ability to get ourselves prepared a wee bit more. I enjoy going up against foreign coaches and against foreign teams.”
“I’ve seen plenty of Kobenhavn in the last week to ten days to be honest. I watched their last league game on Saturday through a stream and I watched it again today so there are no real surprises, we know what their options are and we’ll know by the team they pick what their approach to the game is going to be. They have options where they can go with a slightly more attacking approach or a defensive approach and as I say, their objective is to get through and they won’t look back on this if they’re in the Champions League group stages, they just want to get through.”
The biggest loss Shamrock Rovers will feel ahead of this tie is that of centre half Ken Oman. The ex-Bohemians defender was immense last week in Denmark and received Man of the Match from Extratime.ie, but his injury in that same game has cost Rovers. “We only really have two injury doubts. Ken’s (Oman) situation, coming off in the game last week, obviously is not good and he won’t be fit for tomorrow night. He’s probably facing a longer term layoff than we originally thought. He still needs a scan on the injury, but in terms of tomorrow night and the short term future, he won’t be available to us. We’ve been told it’s a minimum of four to six weeks. Stephen O’Donnell is the other one, he has a hamstring problem and we said we’d wait until after today to see if he would be available or not.”
Dan Murray looks to be the obvious replacement for Oman, and O’Neill highlights the importance of having the depth needed to compete. “He’s played in this competition before so obviously his European experience is invaluable. He’s captained the side before, obviously he’s been out of the side in recent weeks, because of the form of Craig and Ken, but this is an opportunity to establish himself back into the starting XI. I couldn’t have hoped for a better replacement.”
In terms of team selection, Rovers boss O’Neill admits he has to consider who to play. “There are one or two areas of the pitch where we will have to consider who to play. Chris Turner becomes available once again and he’ll come into consideration as will Gary McCabe. There won’t be wholesale changes, but we will look at one or two positions and take into consideration who will start and who will affect the game from the bench.”
O’Neill is aware of who holds the advantage in the tie however, and does credit FC Kobenhavn. “They haven’t conceded at home, which I’m sure they’re delighted with. They hold the advantage in the tie, they’re fully aware of, if they manage to score, how strong of a position that is. We obviously have to play in the same kind of mindset we played in last week. We might have to wait longer into the game before we believe we can take the upper hand. It won’t be an approach where we look to score straight from the off. We have to approach it in a sensible fashion, not a reckless one. Conceding a goal puts us in a very tough position, so we have to keep the tie as tight as possible. We’re well capable of scoring, but hopefully we can more bodies in the box than we were able to out in Copenhagen.”
“They know us a lot better now than they did before the game last week, and perhaps they think they can reach another level in terms of performance. They’re earlier in their season than we are. It’s not so much that the overall performance needs to be improved; we just need to improve in one or two positions. We were annoyed to concede from a set piece. If you look at the goals they’ve scored recently in their league, they’ve come from set pieces, so we’re aware that they hold a threat. They’re a physically strong, big side and we’ll have to counteract that. If our level of performance is the same as it was last week, and we can improve our final ball a small bit, we’ll get opportunities, it’s up to us to take them.”
In a psychological sense, Michael O’Neill believes he doesn’t have to do much convincing to show the lads how good they are. They watched the first half of the game together already, and they’re watching the second half as we speak. Particularly in the second half, they know how much of a grip they had on the game; it wasn’t a “backs to the wall” kind of performance. This squad of players love being stretched and they know how big of a challenge they have to face on Tuesday night.”
“I enjoy the European nights. I enjoy the preparations, and sometimes it’s better dealing with the players because they’re more focused. I enjoy finding out about other teams, I love the tactical side of it. When you’re playing in midweek, sometimes you play a game, have one session the night before the next game, and just play it. With the break, the time off has given us the ability to get ourselves prepared a wee bit more. I enjoy going up against foreign coaches and against foreign teams.”
“I’ve seen plenty of Kobenhavn in the last week to ten days to be honest. I watched their last league game on Saturday through a stream and I watched it again today so there are no real surprises, we know what their options are and we’ll know by the team they pick what their approach to the game is going to be. They have options where they can go with a slightly more attacking approach or a defensive approach and as I say, their objective is to get through and they won’t look back on this if they’re in the Champions League group stages, they just want to get through.”
